Security Automation, Collaboration Prove Critical For Healthcare

Siloed security teams, slow threat response, and avoidable data breaches are some of the main concerns of IT leaders today, but security automation and collaboration could ease these struggles, a survey conducted by Forrester Research on behalf of Cyware found.

Forrester surveyed security decision-makers across the healthcare, financial services, manufacturing, government, and technology sectors. Over 70 percent of respondents reported that their teams need further access to threat intelligence, incident response data, and security operations data.

But 65 percent of respondents said they found it very challenging to provide security teams with cohesive data access.

Experts reported that a lack of collaboration, data silos within security teams, and difficulty unifying data access are major hurdles to achieving adequate cybersecurity architectures. Because of these difficulties, 60 percent of respondents experienced a slow threat response, and over 50 percent reported experiencing preventable data breaches and incidents caused by avoidable human error.

“Disconnected tools, processes, and teams create a ripple effect across numerous security team functions, adding friction to day-to-day tasks and making it difficult for organizations to improve threat detection and incident response,” the report stated.

“Six out of [ten] security leaders indicate they struggle to automate incident response playbooks and engage in cross-industry threat intelligence sharing, while 53 [percent] find it challenging to orchestrate security tool output. This is further exacerbated by playbook libraries lacking customizations which align with business processes.”

Over 85 percent of surveyed leaders reported implementing security monitoring, and 40 percent reported implementing incident response plans. However, organizations across all sectors are lagging when it comes to threat intelligence sharing and vulnerability assessments. About a quarter of respondents reported focusing on those mitigation efforts.

As organizations grapple with a lack of data unification and security automation, threat actors can easily deploy attacks and exploit businesses. HHS’ Health Sector Cybersecurity Coordination Center (HC3) recently warned healthcare organizations of BrakTooth vulnerabilities, Conti Ransomware group, and Medusa/TangleBot malware as some of the top cyber threats facing the sector today.

Organizations with threat intelligence sharing and data unification issues reported experiencing more regulatory fines and high mitigation costs as a result.

However, only 28 percent of respondents said that their organization was planning to implement security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR) technologies in the next 12 months. Over 35 percent of respondents said that their organization was planning to implement threat intelligence sharing in the next 12 months as well.

“As attack surfaces grow and gain dimension across the market, organizations must have a coordinated and collective defense,” the report continued.

“Security leaders are poised to make the business case that automation and unification are business-critical objectives.”

The report urged security leaders to consider implementing business-critical technologies to mitigate cyber risks and reduce the chances of preventable and costly data breaches that can decimate budgets and hurt customers and patients along the way.